For the Russian media “RT” (formerly “Russia Today”), it is clear: “Switzerland wants to bomb Russian cities.” Through this title of an article published on Wednesday, the information site refers to the recent decision of a National commission wanting to authorize third countries to transfer their war equipment purchased in Switzerland to Ukraine. But the misinformation doesn’t stop at the title. In the text, “RT” indicates that Priska Seiler Graf, the president of the commission in question, hopes to “involve Switzerland as quickly as possible in the conflict in order to demonstrate its military power to Russia”. Statements that the elected official has obviously never kept.
This is just one of around 140 articles published about Switzerland on the German-speaking “RT” website since January, the “Tages-Anzeiger” revealed on Saturday. A relentlessness born recently, since only 22 similar articles had been written over the whole of 2023. According to Mykola Makhortykh, postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Communication and Media Studies at the University of Bern, this clear This development is mainly explained by the holding of the International Summit on Peace in Ukraine last week in the canton of Nidwalden.
“The goal of “RT” is to divide Western societies. To do this, they specifically look for suitable topics and target groups,” comments Eastern Europe specialist Ulrich Schmid. In this context, the Bürgenstock conference seems to have given the media the opportunity to criticize the Summit, which did not go in its direction, while dividing the population by focusing its communication on neutrality, an issue already much debated .
And this bludgeoning seems to be working, reports the “Tages-Anzeiger”. The number of monthly visits from Switzerland to the German-language “RT” site has exploded recently, going from around 200,000 at the start of the year to more than 300,000 in April and May. Enough to revive among certain elected officials, like Priska Seiler Graf, the idea of banning “RT” in Switzerland, as is already the case in the European Union.
